Generally, when a metal material such as aluminum or an alloy thereof is extruded on an extrusion pressing machine to produce extruded products (billets), the billets, after casting and cutting to a predetermined length, are heated to a predetermined temperature on a heating means such as billet heater, and are then charged in a container, while being maintained in a heated state. After removal of air from the container, the billets are forwardly moved under application of pressure using an extrusion stem, and the products are extruded from an opening of the dies attached to the extrusion pressing machine.
However, during extrusion of the billets, when a length of the remaining portion or remainder of the billets which is not introduced in the extrusion pressing machine is reduced, a tendency of incorporating an oxide occurs, salting-out product and air, appearing on an outer surface of the billets, into a center portion of the billets, because during the extrusion process, a friction resistance in the billet material is smaller than a resistance in the contact surface between a surface layer of the billets and the container, and a flow of the surface layer of the billets is slower than that of the center portion of the billets. Accordingly, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (Kokai) No. 5-491111 describes use of a direct operating-type extrusion pressing machine 80 provided with a handling apparatus 90 for a discard 14. In this extrusion pressing machine 80, in order to prevent the production of the defective products as a result of the deposition of an oxide, a salt-outing product and others on the products, a forward moving of the extrusion stem 81 is stopped while maintaining a certain length of the remainder, i.e., discard 14, and, after the discard 14 is discharged from the container 82, a shearing apparatus 83 is operated to separate the discard 14 from the products by cutting. Thereafter, the discard 14 separated from the products is dropped from a lower portion of the dies 12 through the chute 86, slope-wise disposed in a machine base 15, to a conveyer apparatus 91 disposed along the extrusion pressing machine 80. The dropped discard 14 is then conveyed to a discard recovering means 92.
However, according to this prior art method, an increase of the dropping distance is required when the discards are dropped, because the discards, after cutting, have to be dropped from a lower portion of the dies 12 through the chute 86, slope-wise disposed in a machine base 15, to a conveyer apparatus 91 disposed along the extrusion pressing machine 80. Therefore, a discharge port 17 of the chute 86 and a conveyer apparatus 91 have to be disposed in a pit 87 which is positioned at a lower level than the level of the floor on which a machine base 15 is installed. Further, it is necessary to produce a large scale handling apparatus 90 comprising a conveyer apparatus 91 and a discard recovering means 92 for recovering a discard 14, thereby causing problems, such as an increase in costs in the production of the apparatus and in machines installed on the foundation.
Further, since the structure and configuration of the chute 86 are complicated, a problem arises in that the discard 14 can be catched and stopped in a guiding passage of the chute 86, thereby causing a problem that the discard 14 cannot be dropped to the conveyer apparatus 91 form the extruding pressing machine 80.